First Cauliflower

Last Autumn I started to get disheartened when Maria was telling me about how their caulis were starting to form heads. Mine were showing no sign of anything resembling a flower, and I figured that I just hadn’t found the knack of growing them (they are apparently hard to grow). That was until Maria asked me what type of cauliflowers mine were, i.e. were they Autumn or spring caulis. Of course I hadn’t realised that there are 2 types of caulis, so off I went to check my seed packet at home, and as it happened mine were spring caulis so no wonder they weren’t showing any signs of flowers.

It is now spring and a week or so ago I was starting to get impatient so I checked 2 of my caulis by pulling back the leaves at the top, and sure enough there were the beginnings of flowers appearing 🙂 I was so excited and couldn’t wait to try them. Last night I picked the largest one, there is no point letting them get too big as there is only me, which was I’d say the size of a small melon. I cooked it using a recipee from Abel & Co, and very nice it was too. I also tried a piece raw and it was so tasty, sweet with a hint of cabbage taste to it, definitely tastier than a shop bought one. Ok it was more a creamy colour than white, but then I don’t think that would influence the taste, and I can’t be bothered to tie the leaves around the heads to blanch them.

Congratulations Rach on your new allotment even if it is full of brambles at the moment. Seems you will have quite a bit of work ahead of you, but it will be worth it when you pick your first crop. It will certainly look much better once the brambles are cut back, you’ll also then be able to use things to cover the weeds until you get around to digging each bit. In my first 2 years I didn’t cover the weeds and found their growth somewhat overwhelming, they seemed to grow three times as fast as I could cut them down/dig them out! I have since learnt that supressing the weeds with membrane/cardboard etc. is the way to go.

Good luck, and set yourself smallish goals so that they are achievable, or you may find it too much! Although I’m a good one to talk, I’m forever thinking I can get more done in a weekend than is actually possible, but I do make some progress every time I pop down to the lottie, no matter how small it might be 🙂